We Got Issues!: A Young Women's Guide to a Bold, Courageous and Empowered Life

New World Library

14 Pamaron Way

Novato, California 94949

www.newworldlibrary.com

© 2006 by Rha Goddess and JLove Calderón

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means or in any

form whatsoever without written permission from the publisher.

Cover and book design by Design Action Collective

Julia Ahumada Grob, Editorial Assistant

Alli Maxwell, Research Assistant

We got issues! : a young woman’s guide to a bold, courageous and empowered life /

Rha Goddess & JLove Calderón.

p. ; cm.

ISBN-13: 978-1-930722-72-9 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 1-930722-72-9 (pbk.)

1. Women--Social conditions--Literary collections. 2. Feminism--Literary collections.

3. Women--Identity. 4. Feminist literature.

I. Rha Goddess. II. Calderón, Jennifer.

HQ1155 .W44 2006 305.42--dc22                                  0610

TK

Printed in the United States of America

05 06 07 08 09 10 DATA 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To the legacy of bold, courageous, and empowered women . . .

Incantation

by Sara Littlecrow Russell

It’s not a voting box—

It’s a cauldron

Ritual container

Object of power

Receptacle

For spells and prayers

Curses and dreams.

Let’s gather together and brew some magik

Let’s gather together and brew some ceremony

Let’s gather together and brew some change

Mix the blood of an Iraqi child

With the sweat of a Bangladeshi factory worker

Add the ashes of a lay-off notice

And the venom of a congressional snake

Stir it well, sister,

Stir it well.

Add a pinch of uranium from the floor of a Navajo miner’s kitchen

And a drop of potassium chloride from an execution chamber

But don’t forget

The skin of a slave,

The scalp of a cavalry officer,

The finger of Chinese railroad worker.

Stir it well, sister,

Stir it well.

Let’s make a charm or powerful trouble.

Sisters we need to make a fire that burns so hot

Our ballots burn through the sides of the voting box

So blend in the roar of a lioness

The bite of a wolf-bitch

The swat of a mother bear

The sting of a queen bee

Now . . . the ceremony is complete.

Introduction

Breath In, Breath Out: My Life, My Health

From (A)theist to (Z)en: The Spirit I’m In

Operation Outrage: The Big ISMS

Hot Stuff!: Sex, You, and Reality

Who You Rollin’ With?: Divas Need Love Too

Holding the Planet: Motherhood, Mother US

Cease and Desist: The New Epidemic of Violence

Got Money?: Adventures in Abundance

Wombmanifestation: Birthing Our Vision

Who’s World Is This?: Mine. Yours. Ours.

Acknowledgments

About the Editors

About We Got Issues!

Rha speaks:

In the spring of 2002, I was invited to give a keynote address at the first annual Women & Power summit at Omega Institute. That’s when I began talking to all the young women in my life about the P word. Elizabeth Lesser, Omega’s cofounder, wanted me to speak about the next wave, where I thought young women were headed, and how they approached claiming, using, and having (or not having) power. In the many conversations that led up to and came out of the summit, I became acutely aware of both the crisis and opportunity facing young women in their quest for agency, influence, effectiveness, and recognition.

In August of the following year, I found myself totally uninspired by the frenzy of political mobilization. In response, I invited six of my closest artist-activist colleagues to come together and explore what young women’s social and political power in the United States could be. Over the course of three days, we laughed, raged, cried, and envisioned a world where young women could be heard, where the passion of our words and the determination of our spirits would be felt by those who claim to represent the leadership of this nation. In a moment of raw honesty, we named this project We Got Issues!

Don’t you?

Knowing that we weren’t alone, We Got Issues! went on the road in the fall of 2003 to create a national dialogue among eighteen- to thirty-five-year-old women about electoral politics and our most crucial concerns as members of U.S. society. For more than twelve months, we traveled across the nation, reaching out to young women everywhere and asking them about their politics and their hearts.

Women in Ohio told us about a recent divorce, or being attacked on campus while walking to the dorm, or finally leaving behind the boyfriend who hurt way more than he loved.

We broke bread in the dining rooms and kitchens of women from Seattle to Brooklyn as they gathered for book clubs and brunches; we held rantfest-style open mics in churches and community centers. We sat in the grass with young women in Washington, D.C., when more than a million women gathered for the March for Women’s Lives; we went to the National Hip-Hop Political Convention in New Jersey, where more than 150 women linked arms and cried for a young women who had lost her child, and applauded another who became a Hip-Hop poet-preacher.

We went to the women’s penitentiary at Rikers Island, where we weren’t allowed to bring pencils or pens to give to the girls for safety reasons. Later, we couldn’t write fast enough to record the pain, the innocence, the guilt, the suffocation, the loss of these forty-five young women sitting right in front of us, and the loss of their voices in our community on the outside. That year of listening had a profound effect on us, as we celebrated the power of sisterhood and learned what our sisters wanted and needed in order to thrive.

JLove speaks:

As someone who has worked with young people for the past twelve years, I was excited to be supporting women my age. Our culture tells us that once you hit a certain age you’re not allowed to need help anymore—you should have it figured out by now. But what if you haven’t? What if I haven’t? I myself was looking for development in that next-level shit. Yeah, I felt accomplished in certain areas—youth development, facilitating healing spaces for young women, youth and Hip-Hop activism—but I had hit my own ceiling of expertise. What’s next for me? I often thought.We Got Issues! helped me find what I was looking for, and it rocked my world from the inside out. Helping other women develop as leaders and transforming my own life on a new level felt so powerful bouncing around in my body that I needed a release, a physical sign of my complete shift. The day I couldn’t hold it in anymore, I went short ’n’ pink. My hair. I chopped off the brown hair that had cascaded down my back for so long, and I dyed what was left hot pink—’cause that had become the color of my soul.

These conversations created an acute awareness of the painful silences and the critical need to celebrate the voices of our sisters everywhere. Our visions, songs, movements, and battle cries have the power to preserve, heal, and protect families, communities, and the globe. Yet all too often this power is hidden.

Rha speaks:

When we started, I just assumed that women would rush to the mic to participate. I had no idea just how much encouragement and affirmation young women would need in order to speak their minds authentically. Quiet as it’s kept, young women in this country expect to be ignored. There’s an unspoken assumption that we are here only to service the needs of others. Most young women believe that people don’t really want to know what we think. My most powerful moments in this project have been watching young women move out of their silence and into their truths.

Watching women push against class, culture, personal fears, and years of abuse has taught me to never take my own voice for granted.

This project is not about who can speak the loudest or the most often. This project is about lifting the veil of silence that enshrouds all of us, in ways we don’t even realize. It’s about cracking the expertly made-up façade that most of us hide behind, to get real with ourselves and each other.

According to a recent report issued by the Annenberg Public Policy Center and a similar study conducted by the Center for American Women and Politics, even though women represent fifty-one percent of the general population in this country, we make up less than fifteen percent of the top professional executive, and political leadership. If we consider women of color, the statistics are three percent for political leadership and six percent professional leadership.

Yet here at WGI!, we know that young women are demonstrating leadership all the time. They share a great sense of passion about their lives, their families, and their communities. They are a significant majority of the nonprofit workforce, and volunteer twice as much as their male counterparts—and that’s not even counting all of the unpaid care many of them provide to their extended families and communities. Young women are deeply concerned about the politics of safety, respect, education, gainful employment, faith, health, and community. But these contributions often go unacknowledged by the media, by our larger society, and sometimes even by the women who make them!

JLove speaks:

And then there’s our celebrity-obsessed pop culture, which glamorizes Britney-style sexual display, casts women of color almost exclusively as video hos, and recognizes humanitarian work only when Angelina Jolie is doing it. These are just some of the reasons that we got issues.

We Got Issues! is a movement designed to tap into the transformative power of creative expression as a vehicle for awakening a new brand of feminine-centered leadership and social/political activism in America.

WGI! is committed to all young women age eighteen to thirty-five, especially those from the most marginalized communities: immigrants, indigenous people, people of color, the working poor, queer folks.

Rha speaks:

After collecting almost 1,000 voices, WGI! commissioned a team of amazing young female writers to create more than eighty monologues that became the core script for the WGI! Performance Piece. We searched among artist-activists, theatrical actors, community organizers, and everyday young women for the perfect cast to embody these voices. We wanted the range we’d encountered to be reflected not just in the words, but also in the physical presence of these women. When we identified our perfect ten, they all gathered in New York for a grueling six-week rehearsal process. Even though the days were long and challenging, these women took on the great responsibility they had been given.

On September 13, 2004, just fifty days before the 2004 presidential election, WGI! mounted our world premiere at the famous Apollo Theater in New York for a sold-out audience of more than 1,100 people. Vaginas Rock, Chicks Vote was executive produced by Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda, and the antiviolence organization V-Day, and featured famous actors, musicians, and political activists. WGI! opened the show and received a standing ovation. Our greatest accomplishment that night was the fulfillment of our mission to make the voices of young women who often fall between the cracks heard.

JLove speaks:

Collecting the rants was our pregnancy; the world premiere was the labor and delivery. After that herstoric event, we were left feeling exhilarated, exhausted, and full of awe, but also a bit at a loss.

Where do we go from here?

We decided to go within, and took some time to reflect on what we’d learned. In the fall of 2005, we launched the first ever WGI! Leadership Institute of Arts and Activism for young women, with a dynamic New York–based delegation of artists and activists serving as our inaugural class. These women are now on the road on a WGI! national tour, building a world where young women can, must, and will lead!

Got Issues? Here Are Our Top Ten

There are more than thirty million young women between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five in the United States—Say What?! But our political leadership isn’t paying attention. Mainstream media also ignores our concerns (unless you count selling lip gloss, panty shields, or liposuction).

But what would happen if we came together in a creative, compassionate, and organized way? What if there were spaces where we could raise our voices and encourage one another, honor each others’ stories, listen to our common (and uncommon) challenges, and wipe each others’ tears?

WGI! believes the answer just might help save the planet.

We discovered ten recurring themes in the struggles shared by our sisters across the land. Now, of course, the ten issues we highlight as those we believe are the most pressing for young women in America today in no way cover all of the things that we and our sisters think about, complain about, celebrate about, and do something about, but they’re a start; we are incubating a ten-point visionary political platform for young women, so be sure to log on to our website (www.wegotissues.org) in 2007 and cast your vote for the issues you believe are most pressing for you!

You and This Book

Consider We Got Issues! an invitation to celebrate, motivate, rant and rave, be still, kick and scream, laugh and cry. We know that you may not have an hour to read a whole chapter. So read it story by story, bit by bit, on the way to work on the subway, on the toilet with the door locked, in bed, on the plane, on the train. Each chapter has an introduction, our featured bold, courageous, and/or empowered young woman, rants, a set of rituals that you can use to bring each chapter’s insights into your own life, and some statistical facts and trends to put it all in context.

Now, let’s get one thing clear. You will not agree with everything in these pages—none of us who have worked on this labor of love do. So the question is, what will you do with the ones you agree with, and how will you react to the ones you don’t? Our request: Be open to learn from all of them. Every single voice in this book has something to offer you, whether it’s validation, resonance, and understanding, or anger, fear, and I told you so.

We hope that these women’s experiences can teach you about yourself. We invite you to feel our interconnectedness and be inspired to action.

On behalf of the next wave of women and power, we welcome you into this movement with open arms.

Say who’s that next wave woman? I Be! I Be! I BE!!

Peace,

Rha Goddess and JLove Calderón

Breath In, Breath Out:

My Life, My Health

I’m not your average girl from your video, and I’m not built like a supermodel, but I learned to love myself unconditionally, because I am a Queen.

—India.Aire

JLove Rants

Since when did our physical and emotional health and well-being come under attack?

From genetically modified foods to pollutants, our bodies are under attack by our environment. Our minds are under attack as well, by negative messages we’ve gotten from our families, mass media, and, unfortunately, ourselves.

How many women do you know who run themselves ragged (all for a good cause, mind you) until their bodies literally break down? We all know sisters who are sick and need medical attention, but don’t have health insurance; they suffer through it, get a little bit better, and then go back to their crazy lifestyle and do it all over again. Why do we push ourselves so hard, and what will it take to get our temples back in shape? Are we not worthy of a little rest and relaxation?

I’ll never forget when my good friend Joanna told me my stressful lifestyle was going to catch up with me one day. I was standing in our kitchen in San Diego, trying to cook an egg in five seconds flat so I could inhale it before running off to work at the homeless shelter.

Ten years later, after being diagnosed with gastritis, a pre-ulcer, and too many gallstones to count, I called Joanna and told her she was right. After doctors removed my gallbladder, I was laying in bed, popping Vicodin for the pain, when a former student visited me and started naming each of the twenty-plus stones they found; some of the names were of nonprofits I worked for, others were collectives I was part of, and a couple were people whose names I’d rather not mention. I get the point, Rafael, I told him after he hit number seven.

In our fast-paced society, where Starbucks offers a caffeine-boost on every corner, it’s no wonder that we young women are in overdrive, racing toward burnout. How much sense does it make rushing to get to yoga classes on time, only to be meditating on your to-do list instead of focusing your heart chakra?

I mean, look at me—it took losing an organ for me to slow down. It wasn’t until I was lying on my sickbed, recovering from surgery, I had some time to reflect. I was finally able to hear my internal dialogue, and it sounded like this: Who am I if I’m not doing something? Am I worthy of happiness when others have nothing? Yes, ultimately it came down to self-worth. I had spent years putting everything and everyone before myself, and this was the result.

And that’s just our bodies, but what about our minds … one look at the billboards, magazine covers, and music video’s and it is amazing that more of us are not going crazy! Seriously, where do they find these size 0’s? And how many of us can afford the luxury of lipo, if you can call it a luxury to pay someone to cut you up and suck you up, all for the sake of fitting into a smaller pair of jeans. That’s what’s crazy here, that we have bought into this belief that we have to harm our bodies in order to be whole. Tits, ass, lips, toes, and now even designer vaginas! Is anything sacred?

Ladies, it is time to unplug and take an inventory of our physical and emotional state of being. When was the last time you got a massage or had a girls’ night? What about just curling up in your favorite sweats with a cup of coffee and some chocolate and reading the book you bought two months ago but just haven’t had the time to even look at? If you don’t make